By Off-Your-Chest Roasted Chestnuts
“Gale never interrupts. While I talk, he tucks the gloves in his pocket and occupies himself with turning the food in the leather bag into a meal for us. Toasting bread and cheese, coring apples, placing chestnuts in the fire to roast.” – Catching Fire, Chapter 7
I was pretty excited about these chestnuts, I must admit. I’ve never roasted chestnuts before, but I sing about them every Christmas!
The biggest problem with the recipe was that I couldn’t seem to find fresh, un-roasted chestnuts in any stores. I ended up ordering them off of Amazon (which I would later discover was a mistake).
The actual process of roasting the chestnuts was extremely easy. After cutting a small “X” into the flat sides, they went onto a baking sheet and roasted in the oven for 30 minutes, with me turning them every 5-10 minutes.
Once they were done, the real struggle was peeling those chestnuts. I ended up slicing my thumb open on the very solid and sharp shell at one point, so be careful if you try this at home!
Unfortunately all of the chestnuts turned out to be rotten inside. Since I’m not willing to risk a taste, I can’t tell you how they are.
Apparently chestnuts rot very quickly. So either I waited too long (within 24 hours of receiving them), I didn’t store them correctly, or they were spoiled during shipping.
Either way, sorry guys. This one was a failed experiment.
Taste: ???
Since the chestnuts were all spoiled, I wasn’t able to try any.
Difficulty: Average
The actual roasting of the chestnuts was very, very easy. The only difficult part is peeling the chestnuts, since the shells are quite hard and stubbornly held on to the chestnut inside.
It might have been a tad easier if the chestnuts weren’t rotten. The chestnuts were soft and squishy, so I accidentally mushed my finger into several of them during the peeling process.
Cost: Average
Only cost is chestnuts, but chestnuts are not cheap!
This Geek Loves Food 